Archive

Interested in shaping the future? Join our 5-day course (2-6 July) on ‘The ART of Foresight & Sustainable Futures’ in the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIOIR). Since 2018 the course runs in partnership with VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, a leading global research & technology development organization.

Anticipating, Recommending and Transforming Research and Innovation Futures

The world is experiencing great uncertainties about the unfolding economic crisis and its aftershocks. Many countries, industries and public services face challenging futures where the quest for opportunities is increasingly competitive. Economic discontent has combined with existing political stresses to catch many institutions – and countries – wrong-footed. Meanwhile, globalisation, migration, environmental, political and technological trends are reshaping the rules of the game. This calls for critical reflections on existing assumptions, plans and strategies for the long-term future. Our foresight course explores ways in which decision-makers can address uncertainties. How to produce sound and forward looking results that are useful for decision-makers?

The Manchester Institute of Innovation Research has been running an annual foresight training course since 1999. Building on over twenty years of foresight experience, we are able to call upon a wealth of expertise, from staff with know-how of the practice of foresight, as well as from sponsors and practitioners. The course now runs in partnership withVTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, a leading global research and technology development organisation. Future-oriented innovation policy research is a key focus for VTT, supported by the Centre’s competencies in qualitative and quantitative methods.

The purpose of the post is to provide research assistance and support to both ongoing and forthcoming research projects in the areas of Foresight, Horizon Scanning and Innovation Research (e.g. VERA – Forward Visions for the European Research Area; CASI – Public Participation in Developing a Common Framework for Assessment and Management of Sustainable Innovation; CfWI HS – Centre for Workforce Intelligence Horizon Scanning), led by Dr Rafael Popper and Professor Ian Miles. You will be expected to undertake a range of assistance activities as directed by Dr Popper.

The position will involve work on a variety of Foresight and Horizon Scanning (FHS) projects, both contributing to ongoing FHS activities and bringing an FHS element into projects dealing with specific topics. You may also be required to assist in the deployment of relevant tools and activities (e.g. online surveys, groupware, futures workshop facilitation, cross-impact or SWOT analyses) in other contexts where they may be useful. The work will typically be interdisciplinary and will require drawing on contributions from a range of professions and fields of study. Studies may be executed within the UK, Europe, and other overseas regions, such as Latin America and South Asia. The position will require practical experience in the translation of anticipatory and future-oriented research outputs into policy recommendations.

Please note that if you do not have permission to work in the UK, the University of Manchester will not be able to obtain a Certificate of Sponsorship for you to take up this position. All non EU/EEA candidates must have valid immigration status and/or a UK visa valid for the duration of the contract in order to be considered for this appointment.

I have updated my “futures” page to include new definitions of Foresight and Horizon Scanning (collectively referred to as FHS). In the same page I include a new framework aimed to support the management of FHS processes: The SMART Futures Jigsaw.